Snippets.

Every now and then I realize just how different life in Romania is from life in the States.  Most of the time I’m pretty comfortable here; most things are semi-familiar—pretty typical life, just Eastern European style.  But in thinking about the differences, I’m starting to realize that there are more than I originally thought.  I like that I don’t really notice them.  They aren’t really important.  But they are snippets of a culture, little glimpses of life across the ocean, so here goes a list of random things that keep surprising me about Romania.

1.  Cell phones.  In the States, it’s really embarrassing for your phone to ring in the middle of a meeting or something, so people keep them on silent or vibrate and try to be sneaky about texting, etc.  Here, everyone keeps their ringer on super-duper-loud (I think it’s a special setting in Romania) and no one seems to have any qualms about pulling it out of their purse in the midst of a meeting and starting to talk.  They’ll sometimes excuse themselves, but not before all of us have bobbed along to the first line of some Bob Dylan ringtone.  It’s strange to me, but I’m used to American etiquette, so…

2.  Caşcaval.  I can’t get over how delicious it is.  In the States, I don’t even really like cheese, unless it’s melted or fried or sprinkled over stuff.  Here, where they serve these really strong, stinky cheeses at almost every meal, I love it.  Mmmmm.

3.  Hot dogs for breakfast.  They pulled this one on us twice in a week at Viaţa, and I’m really hoping my host family isn’t into this Romanian tradition.  I can get used to slabs of salami and stuff (this morning I had bread with salami, cheese, cucumbers, and tomatoes for breakfast), but when we were presented with a plate containing three tied-together hot dogs as our breakfast one morning, I was a little… taken aback.  I ate them, but… well, let’s just say I probably won’t adopt that tradition.

4.  Stray dogs.  They’re everywhere.  Romanians and foreigners alike admit they’re a problem.  Kadie has composed a list of the varieties you see, with the relative danger associated with each, and as funny as the list is, encounters with the scary-Lupeni-street-dog are not so amusing.  Every night we hear them howling (we call it choir practice), and during the day you pass them everywhere, sleeping under benches or prowling behind fences or wandering the streets aimlessly in packs.  Some are really cute, and a few are friendly, but I’m not really tempted to pet many of them.  (Except in Straja.  We kinda adopted one of those dogs.)

5.  Food sharing.  I love this.  In Romania, it’s really impolite to eat or drink anything in front of other people without offering to share.  (This includes tiny things, like an apple or a single piece of chocolate.)   And it doesn’t matter how big the group is.  Even if you have one banana and are in a group of 10 friends, you will pass that banana around and whoever wants will take a chomp.  It’s a fool-proof way to spread germs, I suppose, but I’ll take it.  Bonding.

6.  Kisses on the cheek.  In Romania, women generally greet women with a kiss on each cheek.  I love it.  Sometimes I feel like a mere hug or high-five isn’t sufficient to express the joy of seeing a dear friend, and in the States such affection would be deemed PDA and immediately dismissed.  At Viaţa, I received a lot of happy, sometimes-slurpy kisses on the cheek from overjoyed little girls, and it’s grown on me.  Watch out, my friends.  When I come back, y’all are getting smooched.